Jonathan O'Conner teaches courses in language, literature, and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. He enjoys engaging students in analytical approaches to cultural production and critical examination of received knowledge as a means of understanding the stories people construct about the world. He has been recognized at St. Olaf with a Cassling Award for innovation in curriculum development. He has led several study abroad programs to Ecuador and Spain.

Professor O'Conner received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with research focused on sixteenth-century cultural networks, translation, and Italian Renaissance influences in Spain. He has published articles in e-Spania, La corónica, and eHumanista. He also has research interests and experience in contemporary Spanish fiction, narratives of migration and identity, colonial Spain and the Americas, and content-based pedagogy. He has collaborated with Maggie Broner and Gwen Barnes-Karol on a forthcoming publication in the ALD Bulletin (formerly ADFL Bulletin) and has a forthcoming pedagogy-focused article in Hispania. He has also given invited presentations at the Modern Language Association ADE-ALD's Summer Seminar and Leadership Institute and at an international colloquium at the Sorbonne Université. 

He is currently chair of the Department of Romance Languages and formerly served as director of Latin American Studies. He has also served on the Executive Board of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. Prior to teaching Spanish, he served as an English teacher in Bangladesh with the Peace Corps from 1998-2000.